A Proper Photo Shoot

I took advantage of the small glimmer of sunlight we had on Saturday night to finally have a proper photo shoot for my Desert Sun shawl. I really, really, really love the way it turned out and have worn it at least once a week since I finished it up. Luckily (or unluckily) it has been very nice shawl weather.

I've also been working on a little shawl design of my own. More details to come!

It's Done!

My Desert Sun shawl is finally done! I cast on way back in November of last year and had to put it down for awhile, but it's finally finished. [Details on Ravelry]

This shawl tested my patience, but I think the result was worth it. I dropped stitches at least twice on one of the beginning stitch patterns and had to rip back about 10 - 15 rows each time. Then when I was nearing the end, I was afraid that it would not be large enough. Then I was not sure I liked the hand dyed yarn colors with the stitch pattern.

But in the end all was well and I really, really love it. With the nippy mornings we've been having lately, I might even get to press it into service before the fall!

Le Starfish

In between working on a few deadline projects, I've been stealing away a few minutes at a time to work on a new beret for my awesome new bright pink coat I got for Christmas. I had a hard time choosing between Le Slouch and a Trinity stitch beret, but ended up settling with Le Slouch.

I decided to use a thinner yarn to make it a bit smaller and the sizing seems to be just about right, but the decreases for the crown are really bugging me. I decided to change them up a bit from the pattern because I felt they were looking a little funky and I made the decreases true right/left leaning. Not a good idea in gold yarn or a texture pattern for that matter. It looks more like Le Starfish instead of a cool Le Slouch.

Went back to Ravelry and checked out some other versions using the correct decreases and they look fine. Now I just need to rip back and see what I can do. If it's still no good I think a second Gretel is in my immediate future.

Small Distraction

For Christmas, I had decided at the last minute to make my Stepmom a pair of fetching mitts from some leftover Lanas Puras Melosa from my Urban Wrap. So I started the 1st mitt before traveling home to NJ on Dec 22nd. When I got home, I realized I had misplaced 2 of the needles. Argh! Luckily I had some Denise #5's that I made due with and finished the 1st one.

Then I ran out of yarn.

Ok, so obvious this project was just not meant to be finished by Christmas. So I gifted the one and promised the other would be on it's way soon. And here it is:

And this was how much yarn was left. I just made it!

Details:
Fetching by Cheryl Niamath -- Knitty Summer 06
Yarn: Leftover Lanas Puras Melosa in Passion
Needles: Size 6 dpn

Fast, easy project with great results. If only everything would have cooperated as well as the knitting!

All Dry!

Meret was all dry this morning after spending a night on the radiator. There was no way I wasn't going to be wearing it today and I was going to make sure it was dry. The office is usually a bit nippy on Monday mornings and when I saw the temperature at 30 degrees, I knew it wouldn't be an exception.

I really liked the way it turned out and it has just the perfect amount of slouch. Too little slouch and it sticks up off your head. Too much slouch and it would look like it's going to swallow me whole.

And speaking of the office, apparently very soon after I left tonight, there was a fire where our server is kept and then the office flooded. The sprinklers were also activated and everything was covered in water. Hopefully not stinky, been sitting in the pipes for 10 years water.

Samples, printers, scanners, computers. Everything was apparently wet. One one hand, I'd love to get an updated mac, but loosing all of those sweater files would not be cool. I have a back up external hard drive that was hidden behind the computer and under a shelf, only loosing recent work not backed up is better than loosing everything I suppose. Here's hoping that when I show up at 9am tomorrow to help clean up, it's not as bad as I think.

Stolen Moments

For the past few weeks, somehow I've been free of deadline knitting and have very much welcomed the little moments of knitting something for myself.

In between all of the selfish projects, I've also completed another Alligator scarf for my sister's boss to give as a gift. This scarf is really a fun project and definitely wasn't any less fun the second time around. It's fun to see each section quickly become a complete alligator. I hope she wears it well!

I've been steadily working on Desert Sun, but it's had it's moments of frustration. A few weeks back I had dropped 4 stitches - 15 rows down. Argh! After a bit of breathing room, I picked it up last week and corrected the stitches. I then proceeded to drop 4 more stitches, but luckily saw them before they had the chance to go more than 3 rows down.

After working on the shawl all day yesterday, I was inspired by another knitters finished Meret on Ravelry to start one of my own. I had some leftover Lanas Puras Melosa Worsted from the Urban wrap and cast on right away at 10:30pm. I lost total track of time and was surprised to see that several hours had gone by and it was 1am. I haven't gotten lost in my knitting like that in quite some time. It felt really good.

Today I finished it up and it's blocking as I write. I hope it will be dry by tomorrow, it's gotten pretty cold here again so I'd love to be able to take it out on the town.

I always used to shy away from quick projects. If it wasn't a sweater, I wasn't interested. But I have found that there is a certain sense of accomplishment in being able to complete something in a day or two. While I will probably never fall into the category of an instant gratification knitter, now I know it never hurts to change things up every once in awhile and you get a finished object instantly wearable out of the deal. Not bad!